Dale Kurtz Watercolor Workshop

Watercolor Workshop with Dale Kurtz

Three-day class: Friday-Sunday, April 17-19, 2026 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm (with a half hour lunch break)
  
Workshop fee:
$225 for SAA members
$250 for non-members

(You can join SAA as a member here. SAA members receive discounts throughout the year & other perks. Membership fees help support the work of SAA. If you are uncertain of your membership status, please email laura@salemart.org).

Attendees will bring their own materials. A materials list will be sent to you at least a week prior to the workshop.

Please bring a sack lunch for our 30-minute lunch break.  

Workshop details:
This workshop will be about watercolor landscape painting.

People ask me a lot about how I paint the way I do. That often leads to questions about how I paint my trees, bushes or rocks and questions about painting water or a waterfall. This workshop will be about how I paint those things.

I will try to be flexible to meet the needs of what the workshop members are requesting about subject choices. We will begin the workshop with painting techniques for rocks and move on to painting techniques for trees and bushes. The second day we will paint thunderheads, still water, moving water, and a waterfall. These first two days we will not complete a finished painting but rather methods of paintings various landscape subject matter.

The third day we will work through both composition ideas and the stages of a painting as I think about a finished painting. It can be very important to know the reasons for the order of painting those stages. This will be the day for working towards a finished painting.

Again, class requests will determine some of the focus of the workshop.

Please note: This workshop is limited to 12 individuals. We recommend registering sooner rather than later. 

About the artist and workshop leader:
Dale Kurtz developed a lifelong passion for watercolor after an art appreciation class at Pacific University in the 1960s, later refining his work through workshops and the support of local artists while teaching history and government for 31 years in Douglas County. Inspired by decades of hiking, camping, biking, kayaking, and travel throughout Oregon and the western United States, his paintings reflect a deep connection to the landscape, and since retiring he has devoted himself fully to art. His late wife, Esther, who passed away in 2021, remains central to his work, with their shared experiences and her artistic influence continuing to shape his paintings.